It’s
estimated that 262,000 adults in Oregon now have diabetes, with an additional
6,900 expected to develop it each year. Its prevalence is about 35 percent
higher than it was 10 years ago. Experts guess that some 76,000 in Oregon
have undiagnosed diabetes. With those numbers in mind, a recent summit
was held in Central Oregon to spread awareness about this potentially
fatal condition and to promote healthy living with diabetes.

“It’s an opportunity for the Bend community
to come together and tell officials and city leaders about their concerns
pertaining to diabetes, whether that is resource availability or treatment
plans or access to healthy work environments and so forth,” said event
spokeswoman Rebecca Einhorn. “We want to give them a venue to discuss
their concerns and make sure that their officials know about them.”

Held at the Riverhouse Convention Center,
the event kicked off with a live, diabetic-friendly cooking demonstration
with celebrity chef Brian Malarkey, a Bend native who made it to the finals
of Bravo’s Top Chef reality cooking competition. Summit attendees were
able to participate and even judge one another’s easy-to-prepare, tasty
recipes, and better yet, they received recipes to take home to make healthy
eating a habit. In the second portion of the summit, participants were
able to meet with community leaders and health professionals to discuss
their concerns and ideas in the treatment and prevention of diabetes.

One of the speakers attending the event
was Bob Kolenkow, 76, a retiree living in Berkley, California who was
diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 45. At the time, he said, it was
devastating news.

“I was pretty upset about this,” said
Kolenkow, who taught physics and worked in Silicon Valley during his career
after earning degrees from MIT and Harvard University. “I was facing the
possibility of a shorter life and possibly living with serious complications.”
After the diagnosis, he quickly adjusted his thinking, asking the question:
“What’s the best thing I can do to live with it and manage it properly?”
He found out that many of the things he would need to do to successfully
manage diabetes were things he should’ve been doing already.

“A lot of it has to do with just the kind
of things you should do if you want to live a healthy life: a healthy
diet and regular exercise, and stress management, if possible,” he said,
adding that he’d just finished a bike ride in the hills. Disciplined use
of proper medication and insulin is also key, he said. “I keep careful
records of what I’m doing.” Keeping busy even in retirement, Kolenkow
now travels the country speaking at various diabetes events to spread
the word about healthy living. “I was able to live a very productive life
largely due to managing my diabetes and a little bit of luck,” he said.

People facing a diabetes diagnosis need
to take the initiative to be responsible for their own health and find
the will and motivation to stick to a healthy lifestyle, Kolenkow said.
“The real tough issue is a lot of people who have been diagnosed with
diabetes, they’re just taught the nuts and bolts,” he said. “I go to an
endocrinologist four times a year for 15 minutes each time, and the rest
of the time it’s up to me. It’s what I do to manage it.” Joining a support
group is one great way to find motivation, he said. “If we have other
people around supporting us, sometimes we will do better,” he said. As
for those who haven’t yet been diagnosed with diabetes, Kolenkow advocates
the importance of screenings. “A lot of people have diabetes and don’t
actually know it,” Kolenkow said.

Early detection of diabetes can prevent
complications that arise from having low blood sugar. The effects of diabetes
on Oregon’s population are not to be taken lightly. According to the state
Department of Human Services, the cost of diabetes hospitalizations in
2006 was over $1.1 billion, with medical costs numbering over $2 billion.
Bend and its surrounding Congressional District spends an estimated $475,000,000
on diabetes-related costs each year, according to a news release from
sanofi-aventis U.S., a pharmaceutical company that put on the Bend diabetes
summit as part of its Healthy Communities – Healthy Neighbors program.
The DHS reports that in 2005, diabetes was the sixth leading cause of
death in the state, with more than 30 percent of those deaths occurring
in people younger than 75.

Economically disadvantaged Oregonians
are 1.5 times more likely than the rest of the population to have diabetes,
and it’s more prevalent among Asian/Pacific Islanders, American Indians
and Alaska Natives, African Americans and Hispanics. Oregon diabetes patients
have increased rates of coronary heart disease, heart attacks and strokes,
and are twice as likely to report depression. Diabetes can also contribute
to blindness, amputations and kidney disease. For more information about
the importance of screening for diabetes and tips on healthy living, visit
www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/diabetes/index.shtml
or www.diabetesinbend.org

Long Day's Journey Into
Night at Artist's Rep This Summer

Long
Day’s Journey Into Night is bound to be the “hot ticket” in the Pacific
Northwest this year. This world-class co-production between Portland’s
Artists Repertory Theatre and Australia’s Sydney Theatre Company (STC)
stars Oregonians William Hurt and Todd Van Voris, as well as three Australian
actors including the legendary Australian actress Robyn Nevin, Luke Mullins
and Emily Russell.

The play is directed by Andrew Upton who,
together with his wife, actress Cate Blanchett, is STC’s co-artistic director.
Long Day’s Journey into Night begins June 29 in Sydney, Australia and
August 13 in Portland. The genesis for this production came last spring
as a result of discussions between Upton and Hurt about their shared passion
for this great American classic. Since playing the role of Edmund Tyrone
in 1975 at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Hurt has avidly hoped to be cast
as the patriarch James Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey into Night. As a longtime
friend and collaborator of Artists Rep’s Artistic Director Allen Nause,
Hurt contacted Nause about co-producing this play with the Australian
company.

Nause was ecstatic about the opportunity.
“The production of Long Day’s Journey into Night is an exceptional, unusual
opportunity for regional audiences to see a Broadway-caliber theatrical
masterpiece such as this,” said Nause. “This is one of the most difficult
and complex plays ever written and may well be the most challenging stage
role of my friend William’s career.” One of the most powerful and gut-wrenching
dramas in American literature, Long Day’s Journey Into Night is Eugene
O’Neill’s masterpiece. The autobiographical story is told with such searing
honesty that he stipulated it was not to be published or produced until
25 years after his death.

Audiences will be enraptured by the emotional
complexity of the Tyrone family – gripped by addiction, shattered by the
past, and paralyzed by the prospect of the future. Founded in 1982, Artists
Repertory Theatre is the oldest professional theatre in Portland. Artists
Rep strives to challenge artists and audiences with plays of depth and
vibrancy in an intimate setting and explores the strengths, frailties,
and diversity of the human condition primarily through regional premieres,
commissioned works, and selected classics appropriate to contemporary
issues.

Producing Artistic Director Allen Nause
has been leading the company for 22 years, during which the organization
has experienced significant financial and artistic growth. The company
produces six to eight productions in two intimate, three-quarter thrust
theatres. TICKETS Long Day’s Journey Into Night August 13-September 5
at Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, Portland Evening - Tuesday-Sunday,
7:30pm Matinee - Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, 2:00 p.m. www.artistsrep.org
Artists Rep Box Office: 503-241-1278

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